Experiments with booting Windows under vmware
FEAR ME! I got a ping response from luc.chaos2.org on
lucxp.chaos2.org! One response, but it's good enough to prove that
the network connection LIVES!
...
Okay, er, let me back up a bit.
lucxp is a Windows XP Professional SP2 install currently
residing in 6 files on the andarc filesystem on luc,
running under vmware. I'm attempting to replace the native XP install with
a guest OS, allowing me to access work systems during travel without
actually rebooting from linux (the VPN software is Windows-only for all
practical purposes). So far things appear to be okay from the OS
perspective -- the environment is certainly usable at this point -- but
ironically there have been problems getting luc and lucxp
to acknowledge each other over the network.
lucxp is capable of connecting to the internet directly via the
bridged ethernet module, and has been gleefully doing so since its install
early yesterday (no wireless support on this, though). It is theoretically
capable of connecting to luc through a host-only ethernet
connection, providing a secure and location-independent means for the two
systems to talk to each other, but it has been rather difficult to get any
network activity whatsoever through this seemingly-simple link. After
hacking away at luc's network configuration for awhile I
finally I saw one (and only one) ping response to lucxp's
ping. A far cry from running major data transfers over this link, but it's
better than the total silence on that link until now.
Don't ask what I did to get a licensed copy of XP running under vmware.
Let's just say it's a royal pain to transfer a license key around when you
were never given an install disc that is compatible with that key...
Also, lucxp is a temporary name -- if the install succeeds, the
native XP install will be completely erased and the guest install will
assume a name separate from luc. I haven't settled on this name
yet, but sasarai is perhaps the most obvious choice by
association...